Well said. Good morning.
Now, whatever group is on, I want you to know it says 10:03. Now, I know that does not mean I have two hours. All right? That is correct. But I will just remind those that did not move the clock forward: 10:03, first day of spring, as we already heard.
If you will turn with me, there are just a few verses I would like to read. John 14. These verses are all familiar to you. The Lord Jesus was speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and He said these words in verse 20:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
Very important words. And then, of course, words I know you all know in Colossians 1:26-27. It says:
The mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to His saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And here is the punchline: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We come to You, and we commit Your Word to You, that You would make it alive. I always think of what Peter said to You that day: “You alone have the words of eternal life.” You alone.
Speak, Lord, as we come. We need the Holy Spirit to enable our hearing, or we cannot hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We need the Spirit of God to quicken our hearts, that we can receive that Word deep into our spirit and that it will make a difference.
Without those two works that we are dependent upon this Comforter to do, we cannot hear anything of value. Just words is all we will hear—clanging cymbals, loud noise, but nothing of value. So speak, Lord; Your servant heareth. Amen.
Well, I have been sharing on this series. I think you know this is the last day we will share on this three-part series about three astonishing realities.
One is God with us. We have shared on that. You remember those words of assurance, those deep words of assurance in the Old Testament to Moses, to Joshua, and to the people, that the writer of Hebrews repeated in Hebrews 13:5:
He will be with you; He will never leave you or forsake you.
God with us is an astounding reality, and we need to know that if we are going to live the Christian life.
I shared last time on God for us. You remember what Romans says. Romans 8:31. Paul wrote that famous closing in his closing arguments. He said, “If”—that was his emphasis—“if God be for us, who can be against us?”
Not only is God with us, but He is for us. And how do we know He is for us? Well, Acts 1:3 says there are many convincing demonstrations, many infallible proofs, and there are many signs that He is with us.
Altogether, when we read the New Testament, we cannot think for a moment that God is not with us and God is not for us.
So today we will close with the last one, that phrase that has meant so much to me these past months: God in us.
I believe this is the highest assurance. If you can imagine God in us, it makes all the difference—not some of the difference. It does not merely help you. It is the secret. It is the way you live the Christian life.
Brothers and sisters, you have heard me say it until you are bored to tears, but the Christian life is not difficult. The Christian life is impossible for you and for me. And the only way the Christian life is possible is because of God in us. That is the secret, and that is the assurance.
The first one, God with us, we call the assurance of His unfailing presence. The reason you can continue through all the trials and difficulties is that we have a secret: we have the assurance of His unfailing presence. It cannot fail.
You remember the Lord Jesus said those last words recorded by Matthew in Matthew 28:20:
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Those were the words of assurance last given by Matthew.
I think of God for us. It is the assurance of His unlimited provision. You know how you know God is for you? Because He has given you His unlimited provision. There is nothing He has withheld from you.
And this makes this great secret a marvelous reality and not a hopeful thing. It is fact, pure fact—unequivocal fact—that God is for us.
And then, when I think of God in us, I think of the phrase: the assurance of His unparalleled power. Think of it. Think of what He has done. You cannot imagine it. He has put Himself in you.
And because God Himself is in you, you can live the Christian life—not barely, but powerfully, in an overcoming way. I think those assurances are very clear.
So we will begin today looking at a few things. One is the source of that unparalleled power, as I like to refer to it. You know, with God, source is all-important. Everything is about the source. What is our source?
We had this wonderful experience today at the table, where we were talking about our source of all things—our portion, our inheritance, our unfailing inheritance. Source is important with God, and with God, source and power are always connected.
Now, if you forgive me this poor analogy, Dominion—I still call it Virginia Power because I am old; forgive me. They get upset. They are one of my clients. Dominion Energy is the source of power around here, electric power, if you will. They are the source, and we get everything from that source when we are hooked into that source.
One evening, Linda was at home, and she called me and said, “The power is gone.” I thought, “What happened?” It seems the wires actually under my workshop failed.
They brought this little magic box. I could not believe it. This thing looked like an ancient tool. It was all rusty, and it looked like a cart you would haul drinks on, a hand truck. They pulled out the base, the meter base, and they hooked in some wires. I had no earthly idea what they were doing.
I said, “What is that magic machine?” And they said, “It is the green machine.” So I told the electrical engineer the other day, “That is a green machine,” and he looked at me like I had lost my full mind. So I showed him a picture.
Now, God does not have a magic box. He is much more than a matchbox. He puts Christ in you—the secret. How wonderful. There cannot be higher assurance.
There is a famous quote about power: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” You have probably heard it. Lord Acton, who was this British politician—I am sorry, I do not think much of politicians; forgive me—Lord Acton, historian and moralist, was writing to a bishop in 1887.
He said, “Power tends to corrupt.” It is true. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And then he said this: “Great men are almost always bad men.” How true that is.
You think of the Roman emperors who declared themselves to be God. You think of Napoleon, who declared himself to be emperor. You think of the present-day presidents for life. Vladimir Putin comes to mind. He is on our minds a lot these days.
Unconstrained power. You think of China—Xi Jinping, forgive me, all the Asian brothers and sisters say, “That brother never gets the Chinese right.” Xi Jinping, close enough. President for life.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is only one power that cannot corrupt, and that is the power from on high. And it is, beyond any description possible, the absolute power that will never corrupt.
You have to understand this: you have to go all the way back to the garden. The garden in Genesis illustrates this matter of power, absolute power, and the right source. It is illustrated by the two trees.
You remember the tree of life, and you remember the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the beginning record of the Bible in Genesis. These two trees spoke of two sources. These two trees were indicative of two sources of power.
One was a power that could corrupt and bring death and destruction—worldwide destruction—to humanity. You know, we worry about what Putin is going to do with all those however many nine thousand nuclear bombs he has. But here was the absolute destruction of humanity in the garden.
And then there is another tree, the tree of life. It is the absolute source. The whole story of Genesis is a story about two trees and two choices.
I think some people wonder about life. They say, “Too many choices.” I remember—I have told this story before; you may get sick of some of my stories—the reason I did not like going to the Cheesecake Factory was not because of the cheesecake, because I loved the cheesecake. I could not get enough of it.
But it was the menu. They would go to the place, and they handed me a book. I thought, if you want a book, go to the library. But if you want cheesecake, hand me a sheet with the selections, and I will be happy with cheesecake. Too many choices.
When you get to it, brothers and sisters, in this life there are only two choices. You may argue with that. You say, “Brother, that seems wrong on its face. I make choices every day.” You do, and you will.
But in the end, in the final analysis, there are two choices. One, it says in Romans 12, you can be conformed to the image of this world. Or two, your mind can be renewed, and you can be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. They are the only real choices in life. All other choices are secondary choices.
So let me read some in Genesis and talk about this great thing that I think is in Genesis. I would like to point out Genesis 1. Have I lost you so far? Everyone still with me? Barely hanging on? You get it so far?
Genesis 1:26-27. God said a remarkable thing:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the heavens,
and over the cattle,
and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.And God created man in His own image,
in the image of God created He him;
male and female created He them.
To me, brothers and sisters, this verse is of tremendous importance. This was God’s desire. This was God’s purpose. This is what God planned. He said this phenomenal thing: “Let us make man in Our own image and after Our likeness.”
Think of it. We have heard prayers this morning about privilege as we come to the table, but can there be a higher privilege than that? He could have made you a tree. He could have made you a cow, or a dog—and I happen to like dogs. But He did not.
It is an unspeakable privilege. God said, “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” And it was not just a thought, because it follows up to say, “And God made man in His image and after His likeness.”
That was the great experiment. No other creature has that privilege, if you can just think about it. No other creature has that.
You can read in Hebrews, speaking of the Lord Jesus from Psalm 8:4-6, that He was made as the Son of Man a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Man is a little lower than the angels.
You can also read in Hebrews where it says God did not choose the angels, but He chose the seed of Abraham. Is that not remarkable? What a privilege—an unthinkable privilege. How wonderful it is.
I think of this privilege, and it astounds me. In Hebrews 2:16 is what I just mentioned:
For verily not to angels doth He give help, but He giveth help to the seed of Abraham.
God, in His purpose, chose to make you in His image and likeness. That is the great experiment, beyond anything we could fully comprehend, beyond anything we could imagine. It is the highest purpose there can be—that God would do such a thing.
I like the way Brother Kong puts it. He says image is inward likeness. For those of you that are wondering, likeness there in the Bible is outward likeness.
You, as a human being, have something special that no other creature on the earth has. You were created in the image of God—His internal likeness, your very makeup and being. You were created in the likeness of God—His outward form, if I can put it that way.
Even the Lord Jesus took on the form of man, we read in Philippians 2. We are created in His likeness. What an awesome privilege. This is the great experiment.
And for that experiment, He granted great power. You remember those verses we read in Genesis 1:26: “That they may have dominion.” And then there is that word “over”—over the cattle, over this, over the world, over that—five times, over all these things.
With this purpose, this great experiment, was to come great power. And the thought behind it was that man would have dominion.
You know, when this nation was formed, they said it was the great experiment. A speech given about George Washington in 1790 said something pretty marvelous: “The establishment of the new government seemed to be the last grand experiment for providing human happiness.”
That would be a sad day if we thought this republic was the answer. That would be a sad day. But the great experiment was what God was doing in Genesis, and we are a central part of that. That is what it means: God in us. This unparalleled power.
Now, the battle over this great experiment is enormous. You know how you know that? Because Satan was there in the garden.
Well, you think again: when the New Testament starts, there was a great battle over this other Man, this perfect Man, this Son of Man. And you remember, it says after He was baptized—we read about that this morning—He was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And who was there? Satan was there.
What a battle. Satan’s plan was to destroy the purpose of God and to distract man from this great purpose He had in view. His great purpose included great power—this great purpose of being this special creation, the only thing like it in the universe, in all of His creation.
What a tremendous battle. Great things were in view: the destiny of man at stake, the destiny of God’s purpose at stake. If Satan could have—and he did not; he almost did with us—he could have ruined God’s plan. That was all he wanted. That was all he wanted.
Well, I think this story in the Bible, in creation, opens up tremendous things. We begin to see these two trees come into focus. And it says very clearly—let me read you two more verses in Genesis 2:8-9:
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food;
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
These two trees were in the middle of the garden. They were the focus of what God was after. Which choice will you make? These are the only two choices.
You can grab a pear from one of those other trees there for food, but in the end, what choice will you make in life? There could not be more at stake.
To me, this is abundantly clear. Here in the cradle of civilization, the great experiment began. In the midst of the garden, with these two trees, the great experiment began.
In Genesis 2:15-17, you know these verses, by the way:
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Think of this. I think often, when we think of God—you may not think this way; I often think this way—to think God is hard. Some of His demands are impossible. They are impossible. There is only one source that makes it possible.
But, you know, we say, “Why did He deprive me of this? Why can I not have this?” In the garden, this is the way we ought to think: He gave every tree for food. Every tree. He did not withhold one tree from them of those miscellaneous trees.
He even gave the tree of life, if you can imagine. If they had partaken of that tree of life, they would know the source of life: God in us.
And then He forbade the one tree—only one tree. I think we often say, “Oh boy, God does not let me do certain things.” He only excluded one thing. I think that is the way you ought to look at it. He gave everything. He excluded one thing.
And yet we know the story. I think every Christian knows this story, how it seems to be the center of focus in the beginning.
You know, maybe we like to blame a lot on Eve. Us brothers, we are always blaming the sisters. You know how that is. We like to blame it all on Eve. Even after Adam fell and he took the fruit, he said, “The woman did it. She is the one that gave me to eat.”
But you think: this command that came in Genesis 2:15-17 came before the woman was ever created, ever made. She was fashioned, if you read later in verses 18-25. She never heard it from God Himself. She only heard it from Adam, her husband.
And I suppose we can speculate and say maybe Adam really did not tell her how serious it was. She had some idea, because when Satan was in that garden and said, “What about this tree, this tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” she said, “Oh, well, He said the day we eat of it, we will surely die.”
And he said, “Did God say?” Doubt. I have said it before: we are talking about assurance. Doubt is the worst cancer you can contract. It is deadly. Doubt will kill you, for sure—spiritually. “Did God say?”
At least he left her alone in that garden. She was alone when Satan tempted her. And think of Adam—Mr. Big Britches there, Adam; he thought he was something else. It did not take much to convince him. Satan did not have to come to him. The wife said, “Here, try it. It is pretty good.” And he said, “I took it and ate.” And it was her fault, by the way.
That was his explanation to God when God came to him and said, “Adam, what did you do? Did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat?” And he said, “The woman gave it to me.”
He was pretty bold, was he not? Maybe it was his failure. I believe—I believe—this looked like the utter failure of the great experiment.
Was God’s purpose ended? It looks like it. You remember what happened after this. It says in Genesis 3:24 that God drove man out of the garden. You remember that. I will read it, so I do not get it wrong:
So He drove out the man;
and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim,
and the flame of a sword which turned every way,
to keep the way of the tree of life.
That flashing sword. No longer did man have access to that unparalleled power. He made the wrong choice, and judgment was swift and hard. We have been living under the penalty of that disobedience for centuries.
You know, thank God that is not the end of the story. When you go to the New Testament, there is another garden. There is the garden of Gethsemane. You remember that story.
Here is where that second Man was. Here is where that perfect Man was. Here is where the Lord Jesus was. And He was alone. You remember Peter, James, and John were called, and His single request was, “Pray with Me one hour.” And they could not.
Again, in the great experiment, man utterly failed. He was alone. He was alone.
We read about those precious words where He turned to God and He said, “If it be possible, take this cup from Me.” And then those beautiful words:
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.
Are those not beautiful words? Just think if Adam had uttered those words. Here, the One who never failed did the right thing.
They said the agony was so dark in that garden, the verses that follow that declaration of the Lord’s obedience, that angels had to come to Him—so intense—and minister to Him, or I believe, and I think most commentators believe, that the Lord would have perished at that moment.
So dark was the thought of the sin of the whole world coming upon this One. All that Adam and Eve had done to ruin the great experiment had, at that moment, fallen upon the Lord Jesus.
The gravity of it. It said His sweat turned into drops of blood and fell to the ground. How enormous that dark moment was.
And brothers and sisters, this is what I think happened. You may disagree. I believe that flaming sword in Genesis 3:24, that guarded the way to the tree of life, was taken and prepared to be plunged into the heart of our Savior at Golgotha.
You may not like that interpretation. The Son of Man died upon a tree. Do you see any correlation?
And that sword of the wrath of God that guarded the way to the tree of life was taken away, and it was raised upon Calvary, and it was plunged into the heart of the Savior.
I think that is very clear to me. It may not be to you, but I think of one of my favorite hymns. Those of you that know me a little bit know Anne Ross Cousin’s hymn, “O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head.” I think it is one of the most magnificent hymns written in church history.
And in verse five, it says this:
The Lord bade His sword awake,
O Christ, it woke ’gainst Thee;
Thy blood the flaming blade must slake,
Thy heart its sheath must be:
All for my sake, my peace to make;
Now sleeps that sword for me.
Is that not beautiful? The flaming sword was raised by God Himself, if you can imagine, into the heart of the Son.
And now the tree of life died and was raised again, and the way to the tree of life is forever open to you and to me. You have to see the connection between Genesis and the Gospels. It is very clear.
Well, thankfully, this is what is illustrated in the Old Testament: the choice. What is your choice? What will be your source?
I believe this is what is clear. Second thing: the site of unparalleled power. Not only did He illustrate this unparalleled power in the Old Testament; in the New Testament, He demonstrated that unparalleled power.
Brothers and sisters, you may argue with me on this, but I believe the main reason the Lord came was to demonstrate this life of living through an unparalleled power. I believe that is His story.
Sure, He came to seek and save the lost. Sure, He came to rescue His purpose that seemed to be an utter failure. The great experiment failed. But I believe above all, He came to demonstrate how to live by that power.
There is ample proof of that throughout the Gospels. Our Lord Jesus demonstrated what it means: God in us. I think, when you read it, it is very clear. He said—I have already told you about the garden—“Not My will, but Thine, be done.”
I think of that old worldly song by Paul Anka, “I Did It My Way.” That should never be a Christian song, by the way. Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, made that song famous. I am so tired of hearing him sing it. If I had a nickel for every time Frank Sinatra sang that song, I could have retired a long time ago.
But boastfully, looking back over life’s choices, this proud man states at the end of the song, “But more, much more than this, I did it my way.” Do you want that to be your testimony at the end?
I believe the Lord’s testimony was so different. He did it God’s way. My, how wonderful I think that is.
This is how He demonstrated living by the power of another. He laid down everything outwardly that had to do with deity. Now, make no mistake about it: He remained very God of very God.
But He also was the Son of Man, and He never, when He was upon the earth, drew from that resource that was His right. His right. You remember, I have talked to you before about the difference between rights and privileges. It was His right; it is our privilege. There is a vast difference.
You remember what it says in Philippians 2: He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, or, as my version puts it, “a thing to be retained,” which means robbery, taking by force. He did not have to do it. It was His already. It was His right. It was who He was—very God of very God.
But He refused. He refused to draw from that resource. He wanted to live through and by the life of Another, to demonstrate in this great experiment that is the secret and ever will be.
He took on the form of a man. He died on the cross—unspeakable. And He overcame. Thank God for that.
Think again about two choices. These are two scenes, you have to agree. There seems to be an awful lot of correlation between these two scenes, for a very purpose: for God to describe to His people, for all their days, what He was after and what He is doing.
I love what it says in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47. It uses words like the first man, which is Adam, by the way. It uses words like the second Man, which is Christ. It uses words, the first Adam, and it uses words, the last Adam.
Brothers and sisters, in God’s eyes there are only two people. Now, do not throw your hymnbooks at me yet. There are only two people. You are either in Adam, or you are in Christ. That is what we refer to in the Bible as federal headship. Only two people and only two choices.
Look at what Jesus said in John 5:19. I think you know this verse, but nevertheless, I will read it, in case I have not convinced you so far that He lived by the life of Another.
This was after the one was healed at the pool of Bethesda:
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The Son can do nothing of Himself,
but what He seeth the Father doing:
for what things soever He doeth,
these the Son also doeth in like manner.
How incredible for the Lord to make this testimony: “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” He only does what He sees the Father doing. I think there is a very great lesson in that.
Certainly, if anyone had the power to do something of Himself, it was our Lord Jesus—not you, not me—but certainly it was the Lord Jesus.
You think of Colossians 1:19. It tells us:
For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell.
In Colossians 2:9, it says:
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Certainly, He had the power to do of Himself. It says in Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance.” Surely He had the power. He did not use it, because He drew from this unparalleled power that was in the Father.
And this is how the Lord demonstrated God in us upon the earth. This was the site. We behold, as the Lord walked the earth, One drawing from the power of the Father, doing what the Father was doing.
It later says in John, “I do not speak from Myself.” I think it is in John 12:49: “I do not speak of Myself, but I only speak what I hear the Father saying.”
No, no, I am sorry. I quoted the wrong verse. In John 5:26, it says:
For as the Father hath life in Himself,
even so gave He to the Son also to have life in Himself.
Now understand that. It is through the given life. He makes a distinction. The Father has life in Himself. Surely the Son did. That is not the point He is making. The point He was making, to clear up this great experiment, was: “He has given life in Me.”
You and I do not have the life to live the Christian life in ourselves. It is given to us. And that was the point this One made abundantly clear.
In John 12:49, I think, was the verse I was thinking of:
For I spake not from Myself;
but the Father that sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment,
what I should say, and what I should speak.
I do what He does. I speak what He gives Me to speak. This is remarkable to me when you look at the introduction to the Gospel of John, because John 1:1 starts:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was the Word. Surely He could speak of Himself. And then it says in verse 14 of the same chapter:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
Surely, He had the power to speak. Surely, He had the power to do. But had He done that, you would never know the secret of God in us. That was what the Lord demonstrated while He was on earth.
Think of the Christians in Antioch. By the way, it was the world that named them Christians, you know. It says in Acts 11:26 that the believers were first called Christians in Antioch.
They looked at those people and they said, “These people, these people—I do not know what is going on with these people, but these people are so Christlike. Surely they are Christians.”
We take that name: “I am a Christian.” Is there proof that we are Christians? Is there proof? Would anybody in a court of law accuse you of being a Christian, or would, like Adam, you fail the test?
I believe in Antioch we see different people: Christ in them. I think that is marvelous. That is what He wants in us.
I think of the woman at the well. You know, the whole story is about a new source of power. That is what it is about.
You remember, she came to that well every day, Jacob’s well, and she had, the Word of God says, her little water pot. I think most of us are living life by the little water pot: “Just give me enough to get through the day.” And at the end of the day, “Boy, I got through by the skin of my teeth.”
Life lived by the source of the little water pot. I hope you do not get offended. Did I call you a little water pot? But you are. And you cannot draw much from that water pot. And if you do, it will be exhausted quickly.
And just like that woman at the well, whose life was a mess, and the Lord called her on it, so it will be for us if we draw from that source.
You remember what the Lord said to her in John 4:13-14:
Jesus answered and said unto her,
Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water
springing up unto eternal life.
How tremendous. That is the source. That is the tree of life. That is the spring of life. That is eternal life.
In that day, that woman discovered that unparalleled power. She left that place, and she went to town, and she told everyone what He had said. I do not think she ever returned to that little water pot again.
God in us was the secret in John 4. This, in the Lord’s life, is the site of unparalleled power. When you look at the Lord, this is what you see: you see One who lived by the life of Another.
The sight that comes into clear focus is this: One lived by the power of the indestructible life of the Father. That life was in Him, and that life that was given Him made all the difference.
Now, the last point: the secret of the unparalleled power.
It is my strongest conviction, and you may disagree, that what the New Testament is about is the revelation of the secret of the unparalleled power.
There in the pages following the Gospels, in the book of Acts, we see a people. It is the demonstration in the people, not just the demonstration in the Lord. We see what Jesus continued to do and to teach, as Luke inferred, through a people.
Through a people that discovered a new power, through a people that discovered the source, through a people that tasted of the tree of life, and through a people to change the world.
This is what the New Testament is about. And the Epistles are not just instructions and commands and requirements and duty. The New Testament is clearly about a power that can be in you. That is unbelievable.
I hope you see that. At least, this power is inexhaustible. The power in us is surely exhaustible. But thank God, there is a different power.
You remember John 13-17. I do not think there is anything hardly like it in Scripture. None of the other Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—really cover these. But John, the one who leaned upon the Lord Jesus’ breast, covered these intimate discussions of the Lord for these five chapters, these most intimate encounters of the Lord.
This is the mercy of God, that the Holy Spirit has preserved for us these five chapters. We would not know that God is with us without these chapters. We would not know that God is for us without these chapters, and we certainly would not know God is in us without these chapters.
In these chapters, I believe what the Lord is doing, because He is going to the cross and then He is going back to be with the Father, to that former glory, I believe what the Lord is doing is giving them the ultimate assurance.
Just read some words. John 14:16-17. He is speaking of the Holy Spirit:
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive;
for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:
ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
Can you imagine the power of God, the Holy Spirit, taking up in you permanent residence? Do you not think that is an unparalleled power?
This was the assurance He gave before He left. “I am leaving, but look: I will pray the Father”—and it is called the promise of the Father—“and ask the Father to send another Comforter of the same kind, and that Comforter shall be with you.”
But then He said the most remarkable assurance: “And that Comforter shall be in you.” How marvelous. Where would you be without that assurance?
God the Holy Spirit in us. What was illustrated in the Old Testament in the two trees, and what was demonstrated in the New Testament in the life of the Lord Jesus on the earth, is to be manifested in the people of God.
This is not just to be some high level of teaching, even if you think it is that. It is to be reality in your everyday life and in my everyday life. It is to be the strength and the power that we live by.
And because this unthinkable privilege was bestowed upon us, we do not ever have to fail like Adam and Eve. I think this is marvelous assurance.
John 14:20. He went on to say, “In that day”—in other words, when I send the Holy Spirit, that is the day—“in that day ye shall know that I am in My Father.” That is what was demonstrated, right?
And then He gave incredible assurance: “And ye in Me.” And then He gave even more incredible assurance: “And I in you.” How marvelous.
Austin-Sparks made a huge impact on my Christian life, one of the writers I owe a deep debt of gratitude to. He called this the all-inclusive “in”—I-N.
He said, “In Christ,” “Christ in me,” occurs about two hundred times in the Bible in different forms. He said there is no phrase or formula with greater frequency in the New Testament than this: “in Christ.”
He said, “In the whole range of Christian dogma, there is nothing more expansive and yet nothing less understood and appreciated.” It is the secret. Do you understand? This burden is so deep in my heart.
The Lord went on, continuing to give that assurance. In John 15:4, He said:
Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
And He ended with this being the secret of His high-priestly prayer. You all know the famous words, “that they may be one,” in John 17:21:
That they may all be one;
even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee,
that they also may be in Us:
that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
This is amazing assurance.
Those last verses that are on my heart are from Colossians 1:26-27. You all know it. We already read it, but please let me read it again.
If there was ever a verse I would want you to write on your mirror to look at every morning, it would be this verse. You have my permission. Your wife may kill you, but you have my permission. When you get up in the morning to shave, or wash your face, or brush your teeth, let this be the secret that is ever before you.
It says:
The mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations:
but now hath it been manifested to His saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
What a mystery. What a secret. Christ in you, brothers and sisters. It has been hidden from the ages and the generations. It was not known, but now—but now—those two precious words: it has been made manifest to you, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Could God have done more? It is impossible. He could not have done more. It is marvelous assurance that God with us—it is another wonderful thing to discover God for us—but it is altogether a different level to know God in us. It is the secret.
Bishop Handley Moule said it is the holy secret. He said, “It is not an it; it is a He.” And he went on to say that the Dweller in you is God Himself.
What assurance that is. I believe this is what Paul meant when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:7:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
The secret is not in the earthen vessel, which you are. You are a clay pot. But in that clay pot, God has done the unthinkable.
The tree of life is in the clay pot. The Holy Spirit takes a permanent abode. The Father is in the clay pot. I can hardly take this in.
I often think I can understand “in Christ”—this little speck of water that is me being in the ocean, which is Christ—but I can hardly take in “Christ in me,” which is that ocean, that ocean being in this speck of water. It is marvelous.
It is the highest assurance in the Bible, and it is the full revelation of the tree of life. May the Lord help us to see this.
I think of that hymn by Fanny Crosby. You know that hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” That is one of the most beautiful hymns ever written.
You know, a friend came to her. She was blind, by the way. The blind poetess wrote eight thousand hymns, often three a week.
And a friend, Phoebe Knapp, came to her, who was an amateur musician, and said, “Fanny.” She played this little tune, and she said, “Fanny, what do you think of that tune? What does it remind you of?”
And Fanny Crosby said, unmistakably, “It reminds me: ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.’”
And in just minutes—it would take me a decade or forty years, a generation, to write something even close to that beautiful hymn—in two minutes, she wrote those three verses and handed them to Phoebe. And those words have never changed since.
This is the highest assurance: the assurance of His unparalleled power.
Father, we thank You for the deep secrets that are in Your Word. Where would we be without them? We would be adrift, lost without hope and without God in this world.
But thank God, the deepest assurance You give us. Thank God, it is almost unthinkable that You would take up Your permanent abode in us, and You would give us that secret to be manifested: God in us, the hope of glory.
Lord, just write these words on our hearts that are applicable, and erase those that are not. Cause us to know what it means to live by the source and to overcome by Him.
The secret is that we do not live for God. In the Epistle of 1 John, he said we live through Him. May Your will be done. Amen.